Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass, known for erotic epics such as 'Salon Kitty', 'Caligula' and 'The Key', has died in Rome aged 93, according to Variety and Euronews.
Italian director Tinto Brass, whose erotic films made him one of the most provocative figures in European cinema, has died at the age of 93. Variety reports that his family announced the news on Wednesday to the Italian news agency Ansa, while Euronews says he died in Rome. Born in Milan in 1933 to a Venetian family of artists, Brass studied law before moving into film, working at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, where he met Roberto Rossellini and assisted him on 'General della Rovere'.
Brass made his directorial debut in 1963 with 'In capo al mondo', later retitled 'Chi lavora è perduto', a film about youth unease that ran into trouble with Italian censors, the first of many such battles. After working in London in the late 1960s on English-language films including 'Deadly Sweet', he gained international attention in the 1970s with 'Salon Kitty', a drama set in a Berlin brothel used by Nazi intelligence. His best-known film abroad, 'Caligula', was self-financed by Penthouse founder Bob Guccione; Variety reports that Guccione took control of the project and added explicit material shot after the cast had finished, prompting Brass and screenwriter Gore Vidal to seek to have their names removed.
In the 1980s Brass moved towards what Variety calls more highbrow eroticism with 'The Key', starring Stefania Sandrelli, followed by titles such as 'Miranda', 'Paprika' and, later, 'Fallo'. Euronews reports that in September he was unable to travel to Venice for a restored 4K screening of 'Col cuore in gola', and that his wife, Caterina Varzi, read his message to the audience; he also received the Pietro Bianchi Award from Italian film journalists. Brass is survived by Varzi and his children Bonifacio and Beatrice, and Euronews says he once expressed a wish for his ashes to be scattered in the Venice lagoon.
